Kamen Rider: Transmit
by abodo
Summary: This fic will undergo a rewrite in a new post fic. At least when I find the time to write it. I'm currently busy with 2 fics in writing for two seperate fandoms and brainstorming for 2 more. In short for those who like this please await the new one
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kamen Rider.

Yo! the name is Archer, Archer Claymore Yari is the full name. Quite a mouthful isn't it? And a weird name too. I was just your ordinary jaded guy who was really pathetic to the point it made you want to puke. My hair is kinda unique compared to everyone else and I've been getting scolded a lot for it. Well don't blame me it's always that way. The left side of my hair grows more slowly than the right side of my hair. It doesn't help that the left side sticks up while the right side smooths over my face. I'm not really your goth type or jewelry guy either but I wear a cross earring on my exposed left ear. It was more a dare than anything but I thought it looked kinda stylish so I stuck with it. My eyes are a dark blue to the point you'd think it was black like my hair but I'm currently wearing red contacts. I'm a little on the pale and skinny side so don't ask me if I'm sick every other time you see me.

It all started on that day. It had started out like any other…

"Archer get out of bed, it's your turn to take a bath", a guy groggily called his sleeping room mate while drying his hair on a towel. He was wearing an open polo with a plain white shirt underneath. He wore dark blue jeans in contrast to his mint green polo.

"Zzz…", was all the answer he got.

The guy sighed and put the towel aside and climbed over to the top of a double deck bed. "Hey wake up", he poked the guy sprawled all over the bed. No response. The guy wearing the polo shoved the sleeping one off the bed.

"OOF!", the guy fell.

"Is it morning already?", the guy who fell yawned.

"No, it's dawn now get in the shower Arc this was your idea anyway", the polo guy stifled the infectious yawn.

Archer got himself off the cold floor sneezing every now and then, "Fine". He shuffled to their cabinets near the door, took out what he needed, got in the bathroom and did his morning rituals starting with brushing his teeth.

This was one hell of an idea and the keyword here is 'hell'. Taking that freakishly annoying foreign educational opportunities exam for the hell of it was beyond stupid. Now it landed Archer and a couple guys he knew somewhere in Europe of all the places to have a promising education. The whole place seemed to be covered in snow the whole year around. The dorm was murder, being the size of a medium bedroom for one it had a double deck bed stuffed into it in one corner and in the opposite corner were desks between those was a sliding window. On the other side one corner was made into the bath room while the last corner was where the cabinets were put with the door in between the cabinets and bathroom.

"Geez man don't you ever get cold?", Archer got out of the bathroom wearing a shirt, a sweater over it, jacket over that then a coat. He also wore shorts under pants and travel boots. For good measure he also wore a thick scarf over himself.

"I like the cold", Archer's room mate explained, strapping on his watch and putting on extra pants and a winter jacket.

"You've gotta be inhuman or something Raven", Archer shook his head. Raven Macabre Sylvilagus Creed is Archer's room mate and not so best bestest friend. He's calm and collected, quiet and broody too which makes him kind of hard to deal with sometimes. He has a lean build and wears golden contacts over his brown eyes, he's kind of average by looks. His hair is a short cut raven black hair that stuck up in all directions. Even though he doesn't look like much this guy can hold his own in a fist fight.

"I just like the cold", Raven zipped up his jacket and got out of the room.

"Dude you forgot your bag!", Archer an after him with their school bags in hand. The boy with contacts ran back to their room and locked the door before running after his room mate again.

Classes weren't very pleasant considering they had been using languages that varied from Spanish to French to Italian to Spanish to Portuguese and whatever European country their varying teachers came from. Lunchtime came and Archer was very thankful for it.

"Man this sucks", Archer sat down at his usual spot.

"I blame you", Raven quietly sat beside the chair across Archer.

"Everybody does", the odd haired boy smacked his head against the table.

"Well cheer up Arch. That isn't anything new", some guy smacked him in the back. He had two other guys behind him.

"You…", Archer couldn't move from the stinging in his back.

Praxis Animus Orare, human calculator, international math contest winner and one of the guys stuck with Archer in the foreign exchange program. His hair always looks like he just had his hair half-shaved and let it grew back. He looks a bit mischievous and always has this twinkle in this eye that suggests he's up to something if not then he's just playing dumb or something. He usually has some sort of insidious plan or something up his sleeve.

"Prax, stop picking on the poor guy", one of those two guys spoke. He was overly large more in the width department. He may have looked fat but underneath those was a sumo wrestler powerhouse. He was a bit tan as well with glasses. His hair was of no notable color styled in a natural orbit. He was wearing a button up shirt with a vest, a coat and a scarf, he was wearing thick winter pants and boots. His name is Jacht Empathia Gigas Trifolde.

"Who the hell are you and what have you done with the real Jacht?", the big guy. He had pale skin, a big build and decidedly good looks. He was considerably the ladies man among all of them but they never really minded it until girls flocked around them just to get to him. His hair is usually spiked with gel but he just combs it to the side when he doesn't feel like using gel. He's always got this goofy smile on his face that shows his happy-go-lucky nature but he's got a serious and gloomy side to him that they never want to see again. His name is Altair Frozen Gram.

"Hey I'm just trying to be nice", Jacht said as he, Praxis and Altair took a seat each beside Raven.

The day's lunch was stew as were all the other meals of everyday considering it was the only food warming enough for them to consume. The poor guys who'd come in last of the food line had to consume cold pasta and pizza and other various freezing consumables. They left their bowls as is after eating and decided they'd hang out in Praxis' dorm till classes.

"It's 12:37 right now", reported Raven from the top bunk of a double bed.

The dorms were pretty much identical and everyone found it convenient to crash and hangout at Praxis' dorm considering it always seemed to be stocked with excessive food supplies and it was in between the dorm Archer and Raven shared and Altair and Jacht's dorm.

"Well classes are still around 1:30 right? We still got loads of time", Altair laxly sat down on the crowded floor brandishing a bag of chips.

"I wish classes started earlier", Jacht spoke from the bunk beneath Raven's, reading one of the mangas he'd bought in a bookstore.

"Whatever. This suits me fine any other way", Archer sat on the floor along with Praxis and Altair who were digging into Al's bag of chips while he was distributing cards.

"Hey guys, you here?", a tan guy came into the room. He is Prax's dorm mate and the guy who always plans some sort of group outing. He wore glasses, a coat over a sweater and jacket. He also wore jeans and boots. His name is Fenrir Nibellung Stray.

"Where else would we be?", Praxis sarcastically asked his room mate while stuffing some chips into his mouth.

"Hey I'm no mind reader", Fenrir defended himself as he took a seat amongst them on the floor.

"Alright guys get your cards. Change the loser", Archer said after distributing the cards into four hands. He took one into his own hands and started rearranging the cards. Prax and Altair took one each and started fixing their cards as well.

"Hey guys let's go to the store. I wanna stock up on food.", Fenrir took the last batch of cards from the floor and began fixing his like everyone else's.

"Hell, not in that weather", Archer commented loudly without looking away from his cards. The lack of words from the others was enough to show their agreement since they usually had something to say that contradicted his statements. It didn't help that the winds that accompanied the blizzard outside began to howl eerily.

"Fine, though most of those would be most likely eaten by you guys.", Fenrir said off-handedly.

"Okay who's up for shopping", Archer said already up and grabbing his coat. Choruses of "yeah", "sure" and "Okay" was heard as they all got up to go out.

"Works every time", Fenrir thought to himself.

"Oi idiot we're going", Praxis called his room mate.

The six were now battling the frost covered streets of the seemingly small town the school was located in. Actually the town was a village made specially to accommodate the school so it was more of an on campus town than anything.

"Hey guys the school's gonna hold a fair or something this weekend", Fenrir informed his fellows in the blizzard.

"Why would they do that?", Archer asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's because it'll be sunny for the weekend and the following week as well so they're celebrating though it's only the weekend.", Altair explained.

"Oh yeah I read about that in the school newsletter", Jacht spoke as if just remembering it.

"What? You planning something again?", Prax hung one arm over Fenrir's neck. "If you say anything stupid I 'will' jab you", he threatened.

"You'd jab me anyway", Fenrir ducked away from Prax. "I thought we'd check out neighboring towns", Fenrir offered.

"Guess we could do that though I'd really want to see the fair", Jacht thought about it deeply while keeping his scarf from being blown off.

"I guess I've got nothing better to do", Prax shrugged though every one could barely see it.

"I'm in, since some sight seeing is order", Altair grinned.

"Whatever", Raven said as everyone looked to him for his decision.

"Then we'll all go?", Archer shouted.

"So it's on", Fenrir said with a tone of finality. The blizzard began to pick up and the six of them decided to pick-up the pace.

As the group walked through the raging flakes of snow, Archer, who was trailing behind to make sure everyone was there, heard a sound. It was almost like a voice whispering half-garbled words. He looked around for the source but saw nothing that could make such sounds. He looked towards the mountains near the school grounds and somehow knew that the sound's origin could be explained there. He looked around and noticed that everyone had gone on ahead of him. He looked back one last time to the mountains before he ran to catch up with the others.

The Convenience store they usually 'raided' was unsurprisingly open since the owner was a stubborn old man who kept saying stuff like how much harder it was in his day or something. They stocked up on chips, candies, instant noodles, instant soup, hot coco and coffee. "That'll be 200 euros", the old man gruffly rang them up.

"Jesus guys! Are you guys trying to buy out the store?", Fenrir grumbled as he took out said huge amount.

"Hey these are supposed to last us a whole month", Altair defended.

"And it'll be gone by next week", Raven said straight out.

So the guys got back out into the natural freezer which was outside. Each of them had around two bags per hand.

"Seriously, you guys are gonna get me broke", Fenrir muttered as he struggled through the snow.

"Hey you're the one that invited us out to shop", Archer spoke out.

"Damn we should have gotten ice cream", Altair groaned regretfully.

"What the hell? You wanna ingest something cold in 'this' ass freezing temperature?", Archer exclaimed.

"Plus won't the ice cream melt if it isn't in a freezer or something?", Fenrir suddenly added in the conversation. Everyone looked at him through the blizzard like he was an idiot. "Oh right! Ass freezing temperatures", he said as if it was nothing weird.

The group made it back to the dorms without much incident aside from the fact Fenrir sank into a large dune of snow which took half an hour to dig him out and landed him an hour in the nurse's office with slight frost bite but that is beside the point. Anyway afternoon classes wasn't so bad consisting of varying lessons in world history, science and math, thankfully all of them were in English. At five, PE classes took place which consisted of varying sports and exercises. Sports were for the varsities and anyone interested in joining up, Altair and Jacht are included here. While those uninterested were forced to the exercise side, basically everyone else with no exceptions. These lasted up until a bit after sundown so needless to say everyone was dying of fatigue and hunger.

"Man stew for dinner again", Altair whined looking distastefully at the plate in front of him.

"Why didn't order something else then?", Jacht asked him through a spoonful of stew.

"Like the fried chicken", Archer suggested after swallowing the last drop off his bowl.

"And eat what? A block of frozen oil?", Altair raised an eyebrow and glugged down whole thing in one go.

"Well everyone's done so let's go back", Jacht said after seeing the empty bowls.

"Man that was a killer work out. 30 laps around the hundred meter dash in ten minutes", Archer stretched.

"Don't forget the 100 sit-ups in three minutes", Patrick added.

"Not the 75 push-ups in 3 minutes either", Fenrir popped in.

"Nor the 75 pull-ups in 3 minutes", Raven tossed his two-cents into the conversation as well.

"And of course I can't forget the fact he kept adding to those numbers every time we exceeded the time limit", Archer added.

"I could do everything in time but the pull-ups after going through the push-ups", Patrick sweat-dropped at the memory.

"I couldn't do anything within the time limit", Fenrir hung his head.

"I could do everything within the time limit", Raven announced brightly.

"What about you guys?", Raven asked Altair.

"We joined the soccer team", Altair answered gleefully.

"But we were benched the whole time", Jacht in opposition.

And so the whole meaningless conversation was carried through all the way till their dorms. The time finally came where they decided to sleep and the moon came out.

"Hey Raven, when the hell are you gonna finish brushing your teeth?", Archer asked irritably.

"Why does it bother you so much?", Raven asked through the minty froth in his mouth.

"The damn lights are that's what", Archer complained.

"Sheesh you're just like a kid. Just go to sleep", Raven ignored him and took his sweet time in brushing his teeth and keeping the lights on.

Archer grumpily shifted the sheets into a more comfortable position and grumbled something that sounded like "bastard". He closed his eyes and sleep took him away after what felt like an eternity.

It was a bit dark. Archer could barely see his hand when he stuck it in front of his face. "Man it's dark", he commented and as if the dream heard him a stream of light shot down from above. The boy with the oddly styled hair followed the light with his gaze as it fell on a hunched up form. Archer thought a bit if he should go investigate but in the end his curiosity won out and said, "It's not like there's much else to see I guess". He casually walked over to the spot but stopped when he could clearly see what the light was shining on, more precisely who.

It was a woman. The first thing Archer noticed was how frail she looked. Her face was pale and her body looked weak and skinny. Her shoulder length hair had a dull tan color and her yellow eyes looked lifeless. She was wearing a set of thin pajamas under the blanket she covered herself with. Archer decided to go closer until she looked at him with trembling eyes.

'Did I do something wrong', Archer nervously thought to himself. It was scary to see those eyes. They really looked desperate for some reason. "Um hi", Archer said as if meeting under the circumstances was as normal as walking to school.

The woman looked away. The situation immediately felt awkward.

"Um mind if I sit down?", Archer asked energetically though inside he was a nervous wreck.

The woman didn't answer and Archer took it as permission to sit down. He sat down a couple of feet from her and saw things strewn about. A kettle, some tea cups, an assortment of warm beverage mixes and a fire pit.

"Should I make tea?", Archer offered her.

She looked at him cautiously and slowly nodded.

"Yeah you do look kind of cold and I'm freezing I'm sure a cup of tea would help.", Archer worked with ease since it wasn't unusual for him to make hot beverages in the cold recesses of the school though his room mate didn't appreciate his like of warmth all that much. He suddenly felt something nudge him. "Hmmm?", he looked to his side and found the woman leaning on him.

"What is it?", he asked slightly flustered at the contact. Nothing special, he just never really had much physical contact with anybody, except maybe when he wrestled with his friends.

Her answer was just a sharp movement but Archer kind of understood.

"Hmm it's the cold huh?", he gathered. He took the teacups and began to pour the kettle's contents into them after the tea was done. He handed her one of the warm ceramic cups which she accepted emotionlessly. Archer took his own cup and took a sip. The warmth of the cup seemed to set off something in his nose and he suddenly blew out a big sneeze.

"Aww geez", Archer whined as he rubbed his nose, wiping it of snot and stuff. He heard a small laugh.

The woman was giggling and came nearer and wrapped him in the blanket she was using. Currently they were struggling to keep inside the blanket. Archer tried to keep as much distance between them as possible but the woman seemed to pull him back against her. Finally he gave up and just drank his tea side by side with the woman.

He looked at her and found her face was set with a far away look as if searching or waiting for something in the dark empty horizon. Actually she looked very beautiful, like one of those fragile porcelain dolls. Her face looked wistful but unaffecting of her age. She looked to be a youthful woman at her early twenties but Archer just stored the information in his mind and kept silent drinking his tea.

As he silently drank his tea in peace he couldn't help but feel warm and cozy as if he was sleepy. Just as he was about to doze off he felt the woman beside him shift a bit as he leaned on her.

It was like watching a roll of film flashing before your eyes. Various scenes, each one of a girl with hair the lively color of ripe harvest grain just above her shoulders and bright topaz eyes. Archer thought that the girl looked kind of familiar. The bright sunny smile the girl wore in certain scenes where a guy who's only discerning feature was his grumpy looking disposition, though in certain scenes he looked so kindly and lovingly at the girl. Archer guessed that they were a couple but he still couldn't help but feel the familiarity roll in waves from the peppy looking school girl.

Scenes that varied from a morning walk to school, sharing lunch under a tree, enjoying a picnic with friends under falling leaves, a date in an amusement park, the guy visiting the girl in her part time job as a shop clerk and lots more.

It suddenly hit him, he snapped out of it and the images stopped rolling in front of him and he looked to the woman beside him. It was most definitely her. She never gave him a glance or anything so he didn't mind her as well and kept on drinking his tea. She gave him a nudge and he looked to see what was wrong. She had a small smile on her face and suddenly everything disappeared.

Archer bolted upright from his bed and hit his head on the roof forgetting how low the ceiling was. "Aw shit", Archer hissed. He peered through the pain and tears in his eyes and saw his room mate Raven.

"Well at least this saves me the trouble of having to wake you up", Raven climbed back down the ladder. He was already finished with his bathroom thing.

"What the heck was that? It felt kinda real to be a dream", Archer thought to himself.

"It's your turn so go faster", Raven tossed a shoe at Archer nailing the guy right on his bump.

"Oww… geez…. I'm there, I'm there", Archer said nursing his head and climbing down the ladder.

He dismissed the dream as just another dream but oh how wrong he was. That was just the beginning, the herald to a battle called the 'Games'.


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kamen Rider

It was finally the week end, the day the school held a fair for the fact of it being the only sunny days accessible to them for the whole year on a regular basis since the days were mostly snow, blizzard, hail and rain, if they were lucky they'd end up with cloudy.

Archer was in his room fixing his current outfit which consisted of a black high collar jacket and a sweater underneath. He wore thick winter pants and a pair of boots. The others had left to explore the other nearby towns while he said he'd stay due to a headache. Not that Archer was lying but that was only half the truth. His head didn't ache but it sure had something to do with it, like something was screaming into his head. He decided to enter the forest behind the school. Coincidentally that was also the direction of where the mountain he saw from yesterday was located. It had been bugging him the whole week and he damn sure was gonna do something about it. He decided to explore the place a bit.

It was only an half an hour's walk to the edge of the forest and he did another thirty minutes of uneventful trekking into said forest realizing his own lack of preparation. The initial problem was…

"Okay where the hell am I?", Archer asked to no one in particular.

Yes, he was indeed lost. He held away pieces of branches away from his face when he walked by them. The dirty white snow crunched beneath his boots as he went deeper into the heart of the forest. Oddly enough the evergreen pines that overran the whole forest began forming canopies blocking the sunlight. Another thirty minutes of mindless snow crunching Archer decided to stop a bit and rest. He sat down against a tree and breathed in deeply.

"Damn I'm thirsty", he sighed. It was times like these that Archer regretted not listening to his mothers teachings about planning ahead but he was never really much good in that respect. "Oh well. No time to dwell on that. Better get movin'", the boy heaved his own body upright and began his trek through the forest again.

He had no idea what the hell he was looking for but he had a feeling he'd know when he saw it. The deeper he got into the forest, the closer he got to the mountain. The closer he got to the mountain, the more pissed off he seemed to get. Why the hell was he even in these mountains again? The damn whiteness was beginning to blind him, his throat was begging for H2O and the stress of walking about with no idea off what his destination or target was beginning to strain his mental stamina. That is until he saw something unusual. An opening in the trees and that usually meant that there was a clearing. If he actually strained his ears he'd hear running water.

"A river", Archer cried as he ran towards the opening, fatigue and frustration momentarily forgotten only to quench his thirst.

He burst through the trees like some wild animal and half-knelt half-skidded beside the crystal river before dunking his head into the frost-biting liquid. After drinking his fill or realizing the need for air, the parched boy flung his back out of the water with a content smile on his face. The breeze felt like a thousand needles lightly prickling his face. He covered his face with his hands in hopes of putting back some heat into it and brushed back his hair for good measure. He suddenly realized the need to assess his current situation and looked around. The lost boy was in a clearing dissected by a river. Snow was everywhere but the temperature wasn't low enough to freeze the river. Pine trees surrounded the place like the solid walls in an asylum.

His sweeping gaze saw something which definitely didn't belong in the area. It was a woman, naked at that, sitting against a tree trunk across the river. Without thinking twice, Archer jumped into the cold body of water and swam across on numb limbs. He struggled to keep his balance on land with his waterlogged clothes.

"Hey miss are you alright?", Archer called out with concern while covering her with his jacket. There was no response and he realized she was unconscious. "Hey miss wake up", Archer tried to wake her up. He began to rub her arms when he realized how cold she felt to his touch.

"Damn how did it end up like this", Archer whispered to himself, desperately trying to revive the woman from her snowy slumber. "I sure as hell don't want to be responsible for someone dying", he cringed at the unpleasant thought.

Through the ordeal of getting the woman enough warmth something caught Archer's interest. The woman had hair the color of ripe grain which grew unevenly just touching her shoulders with a fringe of bangs covering her eyes. Her build was slim and somewhat fragile completing the sickly look with pale snowy skin. Her face was slightly elegant yet casually cute at the same time. She looked around twenty-something. It was then it struck him. It was her, the woman in his dreams, the one that he kept company and drank tea with, the one waiting for something in the darkness. He examined her from head to toe to see if it really was the same person but he couldn't believe it. Archer's eyes weren't the keenest but he could make out something lightly clutched in the woman's hand. It was a deck holder.

Curiosity got the better of him and he gently pried the deck away from the woman's hands, careful not to wake her up. Though he hoped she would, given her current state.

He successfully got it out of her hands and examined it. It was surprisingly light even though it had a metallic case and gunmetal gray coloring. It had an odd design on it, like a black oval outlined with vein like lines that extended outwards, towards the vertical edges of the case and inwards, towards an LCD screen vertically.

"What the heck?", Archer whispered to himself as he examined the case. He pulled out the contents which turned out to be only one card. He took one look at it and saw the picture of a beetle. The lower left corner read, "type: form, class insect". The top banner wrote, "Thunder Beetle" and a picture of lightning was in an icon at the upper right corner. He flipper it over and saw nothing written on the back other than lines that ran up and down and in every possible direction like that of a circuit boards.

The sound of crunching snow and a hiss informed Archer of someone's approach. He was just about to look back before he saw a shadow loom over him, it didn't look human at all. Okay correction on the statement before the last, something's approach. On the instinct that something bad was about to happen he roughly grabbed the woman aside before a clawed appendage stuck itself into the snow where he should have been moments earlier.

Archer took a look and his mind stopped working for a few seconds almost denying what he saw. Before him stood a man but it wasn't, its shape was humanoid but rather than skin it had a coppery red carapace, two thin three-claw tipped legs, and two thin three-talon arms, its head looked like an ant's with huge black eyes and feelers as it clicked its mandibles twitching its head curiously watching the boy and his charge.

The monster took one step forward and Archer's mind snapped out of its daze. He immediately picked up the woman with his jacket still around her and began to run like hell. It was hard to run through the forest carrying a person not only due to the weight and balance disruption it burdens you with but also the fact of having to be careful not to hit anything with them. Needless to say Archer was not making much progress given his talents which were basically non-existent. The ant-man followed albeit at a slower pace.

Archer slipped and tripped at every other step not used to the burden in his arms, but he made sure she was unharmed. The ant-man was quickly gaining and the boy could only watch in horror as it took one-step closer every time he hit the ground.

Archer tripped once more and the ant-man was upon him. The creature brought down its talons and Archer somehow twisted out of the way. Archer desperately thought of a way to get out of this nightmare but was distracted when a hissing sound and smoke came from where the claws were still dug into the snow. The snow was melting and the water from the snow was evaporating. The current events were almost too much and made Archer's head spin but an idea suddenly popped into his head. When the ant-man took its arm out of the snow and clicked its mandibles before turning to its prey, Archer scooped a hand full of snow and tossed it at the thing's eyes. It had the desired effect and the ant-man stumbled backwards screeching and rubbing its eyes with its arms, steam billowed from its face. Archer took the woman into his arms once again and ran for a place to hide. He found a cave to hide in and decided to rest there.

Things were looking both bad and good. Bad because Archer was confused as hell as to what the hell that was, what it was after and where the hell did it come from, not to mention the fact finding a woman who appeared in your dreams naked in a snow buried field in the middle of nowhere was weird enough. The good thing was Archer knew what that thing's weakness was. Given his experience in playing too many videogames and watching too much TV Archer figured the red exoskeleton and snow melting touch meant it was a fire based creature which hated cold. Fortunately they were at a terrain advantage given the huge amounts of cold snow to use as ammunition against it.

"Mmm", a weak groan permeated the cold silence of the cave. It was the woman.

"Hey miss are you okay?", Archer asked the woman. He rubbed her arms for warmth hoping it would wake her up more and give her some heat other than what she was getting from the jacket he lent covered her with.

"What? Where am I?", the woman asked as her eyes cracked open revealing topaz gems. Her mind was still hazy from being unconscious.

"Look, we're being chased by an ant-man-thing after I found you sleeping butt-naked in a snow covered riverbed. Currently we're in a cave hiding from said ant-man-thing", Archer quickly yammered out.

"Oh, wait! What? Ant-man-thing?", the woman suddenly went wide awake and looked around.

"No time to explain. We have to move now", Archer grabbed hold of her hand. "Can you walk miss?", he asked, checking to see if he still had to carry her. She nodded in reply. "Great let's go", he pulled her up and ran outside.

The whiteness was almost blinding compared to the dim and damp cave behind them but Archer and the woman ran through the forest with Archer's only clue as to where they were going was the mountain.

"Where are we going?", the woman asked.

"Away from here", Archer's breathing was a bit ragged. His nerves played him as every snapping twig or howl of the wind seemed to sound like the clicking mandibles and screeches of the monster pursuing them. "We're almost out of this forest", Archer happily announced when they saw light at the end of the path of trees and ran for it.

CRASH!

Archer stopped in time to keep himself and the woman from being squished by a falling tree. It blocked the road and a familiar clicking noise could be heard again. Archer looked towards the sounds source and there he saw the ant-man furiously clicking its mandibles. It didn't attack him immediately. It just kept clicking its mandibles. It looked as if it was trying to talk to him but unfortunately Archer didn't speak ant.

"Tha-that's what's been looking for us?", the woman clung onto archer.

"Yeah", Archer held a protective arm infront of the woman. "Go, run while I distract it", Archer commanded.

"What about you?", the woman asked him worriedly.

"Look I'm not particularly fond of this idea either, especially since it's for a girl", Archer grumbled. "Now go", he shoved her off to the side before scooping up some snow and throwing it at the offending creature.

The ant-man blocked the snow with its arm and when he looked again there was no one where his prey was supposed to be which made him tip its head to the side trying to figure what happened.

"Over here", Archer yelled tossing a snow ball at the ant-man. This time he hit it squarely where its temple should be. The ant-man shook off the snow that hadn't turned to steam yet clearly irritated by Archers actions and began to charge at the boy.

Archer saw the ant-man coming and dove away from his spot before the thing could tackle him. More snow began to fizzle and steam when the ant-man hit the snow. Archer looked around and saw the woman hiding by a tree.

"Run!", he screamed at her but the woman wouldn't move.

"I can't. I'm too scared", she shook behind her cover.

Growling frustration, Archer headed towards her but a clawed hand shot out of the steam and got him right in the chest. He was sent straight into a tree and coughed due to the irregular exchange of air. He looked forward and saw the ant-man swing at him and ducked just in time but the tree wasn't so lucky and it snapped like a twig under the force of the blow.

"Shit", Archer cursed running around the monster but fell flat on his face due to the pain.

The creature slowly turned around and saw its prey writhing on the ground and casually made its way towards it. It began clicking its mandibles again. Archer knew it was trying to tell him something but he couldn't understand it. The ant-man thing pointed at his pocket and Archer pulled out a rectangular metal object. It was the card case from before.

"What the hell?", Archer thought to himself. "Is this what you want?", the injured boy held it out towards the creature.

The ant-man thing nodded and reached for the casing but the metal object began to shine blue, blinding both Archer and the ant-man. Archer held it up to keep the light out of his eyes but he suddenly heard a voice. It sounded familiar but spoke in an almost robotic monotone voice.

"CARD: found. Holder: unknown. Registration: required. ", Archer looked around and saw the woman he found earlier to be the one speaking. She looked as if she was in a trance. "Animus: confirmed. Requesting contract fulfillment", she looked towards the sky. She paused for a few seconds then looked at Archer. "Do you wish to register?", she asked monotonously.

"What?", he asked completely clueless. This was all too confusing for him.

"Do you wish to register?", she repeated.

The ant-man finally adjusted its sensitive eyes to the light. It lunged to attack. Archer had no clue as to what was happening but he had a feeling that the next word he said would decide his fate. The monster was already within striking range and about to swing it talons at him.

"Yes", Archer shouted through the blinding light.

"Registration confirmed. Preparations complete.", she bowed her head. She suddenly looked back up again and said, "Transmit"

It was only one word. One word but it triggered a seemingly endless number of events yet to come. "TRANSMIT", a robotic voice repeated in Archer's mind. A blinding light engulfed him and he could barely register any of his surroundings. There was no sound, no sight, no taste, no smell, no touch. Everything was white, just white. When he came back to his senses he felt different. He looked at his hands and saw them covered in gauntlets lined with vein like lines. He touched his face and felt a helmet. His body was covered in a soft comfortable material that looked skintight but didn't feel like it at all. His chest bore an armor plate that looked as if it could block anything.

The ant-man looked at the being that emerged from the light. It had a dark blue-blackish color to most of its outfit and metal greaves, gauntlets, chest plate and helmet. Its whole body was littered with vein-like lines similar to the card holder in its hands. The helmet's eyes were two clear black lenses making him look almost like an insect. Upon closer inspection it also had a belt on with lines and material similar to its armor. It clicked its mandibles and struck the humanoid right in its chest armor which sent it flying into a tree and snapping said tree.

Archer was confused as hell. He felt pain but not as much as when the thing first hit him but judging from what happened to the tree he hit the ant-man really used some power this time. If he didn't have this armor on he would have been dead. He saw his right hand still holding the card case and its lines were shining blue. The LCD on it wrote, "INSERT IN CARD DRIVER". Archer looked around and noticed the belt he was wearing. He also noticed that there was a hollow space where his belt buckle should be.

"This must be it", Archer guessed and inserted the case. It slid in from the side where there was an opening for the hollow space on his belt. As soon as the card case went in something was triggered in the suit. Blue light began to seep through the lines and shine. It spread through the armor and Archer felt the armor get lighter than it already was. Something told him in his gut he could fight back right now. He grinned, "This'll be fun"

The ant-man ran up to Archer seeing the armor fully mobilized there and brought its claw down on the boy but Archer caught it and tossed the bug man to the side.

"My turn", Archer whispered to himself and tackled the bug. He held it down and punched it again and again but after the sixth punch he recoiled back. "Damn that thing is hot", Archer lied down on the snow to relieve the heat from his armor.

The bug thing shook its head and got up again.

"Come on", Archer taunted when he saw the ant-man approach him. He also got up and began to engage in a fist fight with the clawed insect.

The fight wasn't really anything spectacular. The ant-man punched him in the gut and Archer punched it in the head. The thing clawed at his sternum in retaliation but Archer sent it flying with an uppercut. He walked over and dragged it on its feet and began to continuously punch it with his right hand again and again. The bug fought back flung him off. Archer fell onto the ground feeling barely any pain. The ant began screeching into the air and caught fire.

"What the hell?", Archer uttered in bewilderment.

The ant-man ran at his kneeling form and sent him flying with a kick. Archer fell face first and even with the armor Archer felt the burning pain from the flaming kick. He saw the ant-man run towards him again and he rolled forward with a thrust kick just for the bug man. The sole of his foot met the blazing abdomen of the ant-man which caused it to flinch. It was enough time for Archer to get up and rush back in for another clash. It was a slugfest and Archer was losing. Every time the enemy hit him it hurt like hell and when he was the one attacking he was still being injured by the flames. He needed to end this fast. He ducked under another swipe.

A voice spoke in Archer's head, 'Use my power it should have enough to strength to beat him in one strike'

"What the-?", Archer was confused. This was a bit too much happening in one day but he'd have to trust that voice if he was to survive, "Sure but how?"

'First, take that card in the card holster', the voice instructed him.

"Umm this?", Archer pulled out the card. It was the beetle card from earlier.

'That's right', the voice answered.

"Now what?", Archer demanded for the next instruction.

'You'll have to-', the voice was cut short when the flaming ant-man charged at Archer. The desperate boy sidestepped and punched the flaming monster away with his right hand which held the beetle card.

"Oh shit", Archer grimaced. The card was crushed within his fist and when he loosened it shards fell from his hand. "Crap", the boy said desperately.

The ant-man was getting onto its feet. 'What do I do now?', Archer thought. A spark suddenly made itself known in Archer's right hand. He looked at it and the sparks turned violent and electricity was pouring from it. He held it away from his face afraid that it might blow up in his face or something but he suddenly felt an enormous power flow through his body and into his right hand. He took one look at it and inspected it closely.

"What is this?", he looked at the ant-man. "Tch. Fine whatever", Archer ran forward.

The ant-man saw this and ran forward as well. The ant-man threw a clawed punch forward. Archer spun away to the right and dug the sparking fist into the monster.

"Eat it!", Archer yelled.

BOOM!

An explosion engulfed both Archer and the ant-man. The explosion tossed clumps of earth and snow about. A humanoid figure stepped out of the blast zone. The figures hand went for the place where a belt buckle should be and slid out a metallic gunmetal gray card case. The armored suit he was wearing disappeared like breaking glass that dissipated into air.

"That's the last time I'll do that", Archer spoke wearily as he walked away from the crater of snow. He fell onto the snow on his belly and turned around. Damn the sun was shining bright. He leaned on his shoulders and surveyed his handy work. He noticed something shining on the ground on where he beat the thing. He pulled himself up and picked up the shiny object. It was another one of those cards, this time it had a red ant on it. "Damn. I really don't get what's going on", he looked his gaze settled on where the woman he found earlier was hiding. She was unconscious. "What a hassle", he sighed.


End file.
